Monday, February 20, 2012

Silencio

Hola!

I did an intercambio with Elder Greep Thursday/Fruday so that he could do the baptismal interview for José and Iveth. We had such fun together again! He has become one of my best friends. We´re are super afraid that this next transfer we will be separated and will no longer be in the same district.

José and Iveth were super sick this week. We gave blessing of health and they both got better. However their parents were still super sick on Saturday. Thus the baptism got postponed to this weekend.

My favorite miracle this week came from a moment of silence. We were in the middle of teaching a lesson when I felt that we just were not connecting with this menos activo. It felt more like teaching a lesson and not teaching a person. While my companion spoke I tried to figure out/seek inspiration on how we could help this man. When it was my turn to speak again I felt that I should not say anything. Thus when I did not speak my companion began to speak again. I slightly tapped him with my knee and he stopped. We both just sat there, waiting. After what seemed like 10 minutes of silence, this menos activo began to open up to us. It was a complete change in him. And the Spirit overtook the lesson. We have been trying to win the trust of this menos activo for months because his wife is not a member. Finally after letting the Spirit talk to his heart during a moment of silence, we have had this momento clave that we have been searching.

¡Hasta luego!

Love,
Elder Buchkovich

Monday, February 13, 2012

Cena de Amor y Amistad

¡Hola!

It is still quite cold here. But not as bad as home, so I can´t complain. We had a great week. On Thursday and Friday we had two days of special training with President. As always we left super uplifted. Friday evening the jovenes hosted a Cena de Amor y Amistad to raise money for an upcoming temple trip. We went with quite a few investigators. ¡Fue genial! I really LOVE Granollers.

Heavenly Father answers his children´s prayers! This past week God answered my prayers and the prayers of a young joven. José and his sister Iveth have had several fechas in the past, but never went through with their baptisms. We eventually had to stop visiting them regularly, which was probably the hardest thing I have had to do in my mission. However last week when all of our plans fell through we decided to pass by to see how they were. We had a great lesson! Although we had not been visiting him, angels had still been preparing the heart of José. He finally opened up and told us the doubts he had about God. So we invited him to pray and ask God if he existed. On Friday José came to the ward activity. During the activity we pulled him aside for a lesson. We asked him about his prayers. And his response to our question was amazing! He told us that he had indeed prayed. He felt in his heart happiness as his answer that God does exist. And thus he wants to enter through the gate to heaven, which is baptism. We immediately invited him to be baptized and set the fecha for this upcoming Saturday. The next day his little sister expressed desires to be baptized too! I never prayed so much for another family (that is isnt my own) as I have been praying for this family. And finally they are getting baptized!

¡Hasta luego!

Love,
Elder Buchkovich

Monday, February 6, 2012

NIEVE EN BARCELONA!?!?!?!?

¡Hola!

Direct quote from my email to Mom last week: "enjoy the snow! i havent touched any in 2 years!!!" Well I have to be more careful about what I say in my emails. On Thursday it snowed for the first time in 2 years in the Barcelona area. And let me tell you, it snowed! Nothing compared to home, however it did start to stick a little bit. Luckily it was weekly planning time so we did not have to leave for proselytismo. however we enjoyed watching it fall. all weekend there were temperatures around freezing and sunday it snowed a little bit more...nothing too much though. i tried catching snowflakes with my tongue. a lady saw me and started laughing. haha i guess i havent changed much.
We have been really trying to apply better the techniques for finding. We have seen quite a few miracles as a result of this. To escape the cold we have been visiting the members more. We share a spiritual message and leave, having been warmed by the calefacción and the Spirit. Also we have been focusing more on contacting. In general as a result of these two things, we have been finding a lot more investigators and our total number of lessons has increased substantially.

Edwin (who got baptized in november) is amazing! He accompanied us on some visits this weekend. His timidness seemed to disappear! He shared such a great testimony in each visit. The last person we visited is an investigator with whom he is friends. When we invited her to come to church, she was not very excited. However Edwin convinced her come!

¡Hasta luego!

Love,
Elder Buchkovich